Consumed

I've always been a glass half-volt kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that we too.

Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, challenges, their stories, their funny, and my candy. So I hope you'll join me each week and who knows. You might just come away with your own glass half-volt. Search Glass Half-volt with Craig Melvin from today on YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Who gets to be a citizen of the United States at birth? When it comes to sports in school, who gets to compete with the girls?

And how much power does the president actually have to hire and fire at independent agencies? These are some of the key questions before the U.S. Supreme Court this term. And as any good lawyer knows, whether you win or lose in the highest court depends on the facts, the evidence, and how you frame your arguments.

“But that's not the only thing that matters.”

I'm Laura Jarrett Senior Legal correspondent at NBC News, and this month, in a new series for our here's the scoop podcast, I'm talking to legal experts and lawyers whose past legal victories are now the building blocks for the biggest cases still left to be decided. I want to know how they convinced the court they were right when the stakes were high, what special sauce locked it in? And what could be different this time around? Join us for here's the scoop Supreme Court edition.

New episodes, every Saturday, you can find here's the scoop from NBC News on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. I could not believe it. I couldn't imagine anyone that would ever want to hurt her. I had no idea what could have happened. Mary, to her high school sweetheart, family meant everything to her.

There was always a lot of talk about children. She wanted grandchildren best.

But it all went up in smoke the night she died in a mysterious and monstrous inferno. It was to the right of the mattresses that I would found the remains of Julie.

“Shocking as the blaze was, it was nothing compared to what investigators found in the embers.”

It's a bullet. Yes. So this woman's been shot to death. Yes. The obvious suspects, neighborhood thieves. There were half a dozen house varringries and salt. Investigators also dug into a favorite theory. The husband didn't.

I was angry. I felt that the detectives were on a manhunt and they were after my dad.

And anyway, he was in another state.

He's over 200 miles away. Then, a pop-to-text that might just be a clue. You could say, "Well, he may be she's driving a bench here." That's correct. The truth. Beyond twisted. Leaving behind smoking ashes and burning questions.

“I physically started shaking and I started crying. I want to know why.”

I'm lester-hold and this is Date Line. Here's Dennis Murphy with Consumed. The Caterbury Hills subdivision in Paduca, Kentucky is a good place to raise kids. Tidy-homes kept up by neighbors living ordered lives. So as the front porch lights winked out on just another day,

what happened when Cole January night in the wee hours was especially alarming. Orange flames were licking the treetops. A roaring, all-consuming fire was devouring one of the nice homes. It was awful. Half of the house was gone. What would rise for those ashes was far more than a fire marshals investigation into cars.

There would be a probe into the deepest roots of a treachery beyond most people's comprehension. It's not true. You know what? What had they all missed? A monster, a liar, a cheater. He's destroyed my entire family.

[Music] Before it became charred rubble, the house was home to a long time Paduca Cup. Keith and Julie Griffin, church-going, golf playing high school sweethearts, 36 years into a marriage that had produced two sons. Aaron the older.

They were very supportive parents. They were loving, they love my kids. Aaron took after his dad. Athletic, easy-going, level-headed. Younger brother Zach was more of a firecracker like his mom.

There was the time, for instance, in the sixth grade, Zach grabbed a shovel and started digging a hole for a coy pond in the backyard. My parents come home. They're like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "We're going to have a pond." Were they okay with it?

Yeah, they were kind of like, "This is going to be a nightmare."

the Griffiths' lives seemed to only get busier. They joined a motorcycle class through their church. Frequently, we were a golf force and with friends, Craig and Temple Bradley. Everybody, the new Keith, loved, great guy.

Did he become your best friend? Yeah, definitely one of my very best friends. Temple felt that way about Julie, too. She had a heart of gold to do anything for you, but she also wasn't afraid to tell you exactly how it was either.

Did you get people's feathers ruffled? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but everybody loved her. After early retirement from the Water Company, Keith found a second career as a traveling lawnmower salesman, which left Julie to spend a lot of nights alone in the house.

But Keith never worried for her well-being in a safe neighborhood.

Their own door watched over by their beloved Great Dane Cleo. Aaron's wife, Ali. I know that for a long time they didn't even lock their door.

“I believe and go to dinner or go to town and leave the door unlocked”

because Cleo was the guard dog. For filled as the Griffith's live seemed to be, Keith and Julie were transformed when Aaron and Ali brought into the world their first dog, Ari. When I had that first child, it was a greatest day of her life, I think.

Julie lived for my little girl. She wanted to be a part of everything that she did. And Julie was there for Ali when she went into labor with their second daughter, at least. Her white knuckle dashed to the hospital earned Julie the affectionate nickname,

"Naskar Nana."

The flashers were going and she was honking the horn.

And what did she say to her? She's just don't have a baby in my car. She says, "Keep your legs crossed, don't have a baby in the car." Everything seemed to be going great for the Griffiths in 2013. Keith had weight loss surgery and dropped more than a hundred pounds.

Julie was over the moon with two grand daughters. But also that year came the rift. Zack disclosed to his very religious conservative parents that he is gay. It was definitely hard to me and went from my mom and my best friend and going from talking to her. Multiple times a day to just being completely...

...just completely shut off. Julie visited Zack that fall. They tiptoed around the elephant in the room, but the time together gave Zack Hope.

“Was that the step as you look back to patching things up between you?”

Yeah. Yeah. There was a way forward.

There was definitely a way forward.

We just needed more time. But then came that cold night in January. Not one way through emergency. There was a house on fire in here. And there was not a fire truck here.

A deputy drove toward the Griffith home, his dash cam recorder catching this quick glimpse of the blades. Soon the fire trucks arrived. Then McCrack and County Sheriff's Detective Matt Carter received a call in the middle of the night. This is a bad fire.

Very hot. That whole left into the house was just completely consumed with fire. It took about an hour for firefighters to knock down the flames. Hours more for them to make their way through the block and wreckage of the house

“to what seemed to be the heart of the fire, the master bedroom.”

Gastly, what they would discover. What they found in the embers would rattle the neighborhood and shatter the family. Everything was just consumed by fire to the point that they were unrecognizable. When we come back, investigators make a pair of discoveries

and realize they're dealing with both a tragedy and a mystery. He had recovered a projectile. A bullet. Yes. Daybreak revealed the grim aftermath of the blaze at 307 Tudor Boulevard.

Wisps of smoke rose from the black water soak wreckage that was once the grip at home. Detective Matt Carter. This entire structure had crumbled. It was a pile of ashes that was on the ground. We didn't even know if anyone was home or not.

We knew that they were in and out of town a lot. As firefighters carefully walked through, what appeared to be the fire's epicenter, the master bedroom. Their worst fears were confirmed. Julie had in fact been home that night.

It was to the right of the box mattresses that we found the remains of Julie. They were unsure initially that it was human remains. We didn't think they were all there experience. Yes, everything was just consumed by fire to the point that things were unrecognizable. As for Keith, he was away calling on customers in Indiana.

Word of Julie's death spread almost as fast as the fire had raised through the house. I'm getting ready for work. I'm having the TV on and back around. We are live in the Canterbury Hills subdivision on Tudor Boulevard.

It was a friend who also knew Julie.

She said, "There's the fire." He said, "Yeah, it's all on TV." She said, "It's Keith and Julie's house." And that is up there.

“Did she know at that point that Julie in fact was gone?”

She knew. So she told me. Temple's husband immediately tracked down Keith as he was making the three hour drive home from Indiana. He said, "I'm all my way.

I'm probably, you know, two hours away." He said, "Are you all right?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah." I could tell he was in shock. The news hit Zach Griffith particularly hard. Since coming out to his mother,

his relationship with her had been strained. And now, this. I guess you're just beating yourself up something terrible that you've been sideways with her. And I know that if we were just given more time,

that we would have been close again, that we would have been. You know that mom and son do all that we were. But we just, we didn't have the time. It was ripped away from us.

And never get a pack. Aaron, the elder son, had more of a take-charge reaction. I got to take care of my brother. I got to take care of my dad. And got logistics before.

Yeah. Yeah. The news can even get absorbed.

“Yeah, for me, it's just kind of the way my brain is wired, I guess.”

Within hours, the Griffiths would head from all directions toward what used to be an anchor in their lives. The family home. Just gave my dad a big hug and we were both crying. We were like, "I can't believe this."

You know what would happen. Keith's good friend, Craig Bradley, was there to lend his support. And how was he doing?

This is the first time you had a chance to see him out of eye.

I guess he's just telling you, "Shaken." As if the news couldn't get any worse, the Griffiths' great-dane Cleo, along with the second pet Daisy, had also perished in the flames. Craig and Keith walked the property, surveying the damages.

I mean, we get to the coi-pond, and he's like, "I've got to get those fish out of there." Julie kill me if something happened to those fish. I was like, you know, "Let's not worry about that." Right, man.

Overwhelmed by loss, the Griffiths were faced with the question, "How could this have happened?" The first thought was that it was the new heating and air unit. It had just gone in. The unit had been installed just days before the fire,

adjacent to the master bedroom. That was my very first thought that somehow the new heating and air unit wasn't put improperly. Faulty installation. As for the cause of Julie's death,

that was left to the county coroner's office. Deputy coroner Ben Bradford. What were you working with? A very, a very charred body. I could not very well identify it being a person.

The cause of death seemed obvious, but just to be sure, Julie's remains were sent onto the medical examiner for an autopsy. What he discovered was as deeply troubling as it was unexpected. He had recovered a projectile in the remains.

The bullet. Yes. Suddenly, what was thought to have been death by smoke inhalation was now a homicide. Closer examination revealed three bullet holes

in all in Julie's torso. The deputy coroner immediately called the sheriff's office. I said, "We need to get some people back to that house because this is going to be a homicide." You know what?

Absolutely. Lady in a nice neighborhood, good house. Right. And now she's got three bullet wounds. Try it on a who did it cry.

Back at 307 Tudor Boulevard, fire equipment pulled out as sheriff's cruisers pulled in. Would the charred wreckage of a home once filled with joy and laughter? Now hold clues, pointing to a killer.

Coming up,

“could Julie's murder have been a burglary, gone bad?”

Somebody's looking for the laptop or whatever jewelry in, right? The thing goes down, right? And then this detective spies

what could be a critical clue on someone's phone.

Pin up comes a text message. That's correct. When date line continues. Hey guys, Willie Guys Tier, reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast

on this week's episode. I get together with one of the most influential voices in the country right now. Mel Robbins on her rise from rock bottom to an empire with a top podcast,

bestselling books with the message, let them. You can get my conversation with Mel for free wherever you download your podcasts. The theory that Julie died by accidental fire

had collapsed as suddenly as the Griffith house itself. For Detective Matt Carter, a 45 caliber slug recovered from Julie Griffith's torso turned the charred rubble into the scene of a homicide. So I'm guessing your day has changed a whole lot here.

Despite more than a decade on the job,

“the detective had his work cut out for him.”

No hair fiber, bloody footprints, none of that stuff. You've got an arson that's destroyed any chance of obtaining any of that from the scene. For Detective Carter, the most obvious theory,

this homicide was the work of a home intruder, a burglary going bad. Somebody's looking for the laptop or whatever jewelry and the thing goes down. We had had some burglaries within a few miles of this area.

Within weeks or months. Within weeks, within weeks. As police canvas the neighborhood for leads and witnesses, the investigator also had to consider. The perpetrator may have been someone Julie Newt.

You're not really anyone out oriented. You're simply going through the motions.

You're speaking to immediate family and first.

It worked in your way out. The sheriff's department did not tell the Griffith's Julie had been murdered. We were not told anything by the police at that point.

“But anyone at the scene might have guessed foul play was somehow involved.”

There was just cops all over the property. She said, "Why are they captured?" Naturally, the first person detective Carter interviewed was Julie's husband, Keith. First of all, we have our sorry for your loss.

Appreciate this. At first, Keith talked about what everyone perceived was the cause of the inferno. An accidental fire set off by a newly installed heating unit. You had an against-backed and teased thing.

Okay. I mean, it was a whole new system. Keith explained the contractor was a friend of his who'd done the work just a few days earlier. They put a rush on it.

I mean, you know, this kind of work friends look for each other. You know, in a hope to God that this problem is not his. But eventually, without giving details, the detective revealed Julie's death was no accident. The investigation is showing that the foul play is involved.

I do not believe at this point in time that this was any kind of an accident.

“I'm going to ask for your cooperation on several things.”

Okay. One of the first things detective Carter asked about was how Keith and Julie were getting along. In problems at all, it's your turn. Anything like that whatsoever.

No, she's my best friend. Okay. I mean, I know. I mean, that woman loved everybody. The investigator also asked Keith for details

about his business trip to Indiana. The hotel, comfort sweets, comfort sweets. Okay. Didn't leave the hotel. I did leave the hotel about.

About a little more of a clock. I went and got something to drink. And I left again about four or five. And just when you got a donut and a coke, like I said, I get up pretty early.

And what about weapons? Did Keith on a gun? I have a 45 ACP in my work truck

that I just got and it's never had any.

I mean, it's never been loaded. As part of standard protocol, the detective asked for Keith's clothes. They would be tested for gunshot residue. What you're wearing now is that was that fresh clothes

from this morning whenever you just were yesterday. Before wrapping up the interview, the detective took a look at Keith cell phone. While I'm reviewing this phone, I see that he obtains a text message and incoming text message

from a lady by the name of Diana James. Ping up comes a text message. That's correct. The message read did you make it home okay? Keith was quick to point out his relationship with Diana

was completely platonic. She's more a gathering. No big deal, nothing sexual. That's right. After that, Keith was released to go and grieve with his family.

Detective Carter meanwhile set out to verify Keith's story. He had a receipt where he'd stayed. So that puts him three hours away from this house fire and breath of his wife. It showed his check-in time and check-out time.

A quick check of Keith's gun showed he was telling the truth about it as well.

The gun looked as though it had never been fired.

So maybe he's not the guy. He may not be. So then who was? Coming up. The detective sits down with Diana.

Was she really like a guy friend to Keith? You could say why he may be she's driving events here. Maybe she wants to get rid of the wife. That's great. Julie Griffith's family had hardly had time to absorb

the horrific news of her death in a house fire. When disturbing rumors started reaching them that investigators thought her death was foul play. The sheriff's department kept details of the murder quiet for days.

Daughter-in-law, Ali.

“I couldn't imagine anyone that would ever want to hurt her.”

Much less set the house on fire. The dogs, parish. I had no idea what could have happened. No enemies. I mean, it made no sense that just who would want to kill her.

After Keith was released, the night of his interview with detectives. He headed straight to his friends, the Bradley's. They were floored to hear the line of questioning that he recounted. What was up with his marriage is alibi, the gun he owned. He had been questioned to the point that he almost felt like

that they thought he did that he had done this. Sun Erin also got cold down to the station that same evening. And he too was questioned about his parents' marriage. It was the same lightly in their relationship as far as he probably was anything like that to know where he was.

Nothing. Was there any money troubles? Was there any relationship things that we knew of? But to a person in the Griffith Circle, the very idea that Keith might know something about Julie's death was well just flat out crazy.

I knew he didn't do it. There wasn't any way that Keith was involved in this. I remember sitting there and looking over at Keith and just watching him for a while.

And then finally out of Sid, you can't even agree with Kenny.

And he said, "No, they've taken it all away." The friend's working theory was a botched break-in. They'd heard about the neighborhood's recent rash of burglaries. Maybe that's what happened to Julie. They'd come in and they startled Cleoke.

Dog started a barbecue for them. I was really to wake up and they got scared. And they shot her. And made perfect sense. But for Detective Carter, the burglary theory of the crime wasn't panning out.

Even as they sorted through the rubble, detectives at the scene found untouched valuables, two safes, a cache of guns, and Julie's purse sitting in plain sight. You think an intruder would have grabbed it? You think so.

So Carter set out to follow the most promising lead he had.

“Who was this woman Diana, the text messenger, who wondered if Keith had made it home okay?”

He had described her as a guy friend. There was just something about that text message that seemed to stick out and it seemed to create that question of what's missing here. Carter had called ahead to the authorities in the Indiana town where Diana lived. They'd arranged to bring the woman down to an interview room.

She was waiting. And he's met Carter. Diana was about to tell the detective a story that would dramatically reshape his investigation. Were she a guy friend? No, it was more than that.

Diana shared the same story with us. He wanted me to love him.

Diana says she and Keith first met years earlier at a vendor fair.

She was the CFO of an IT company. Keith, the road warrior lawnmower salesman had a booth there. Keith was sitting there and I guess I caught his attention right away. You'd noticed he was staring at me and so I kind of, you know, just smiled. She says he asked her to dinner.

They quickly discovered how much they had in common. He talked about both his sons and being a grandpa. So I just really connected because I had grown kids too. After several dates, Diana says Keith expressed interest in a relationship. But she wanted to keep it just friends.

They stayed in touch but didn't see each other for a while. Then just a few months back, he sent her a flirty text message. The text just said, "Did you cast a spell on me?" And I looked down at my phone and I'm like, "What?" He says, "Well, I was in a party last night and this woman was chatting me up.

He goes, "I like to think about what was you." Diana, who was in the throes of a traumatic romantic breakup, agreed to start seeing him again for dinners. And she says he seemed excited to show off the new post-surgery Keith. He goes, "You're not going to recognize me."

And he goes, "I've lost over a hundred pounds." I'm saying, "You have." "Did he look okay?" He looked fine. I mean, he felt, I think he was more confident as well.

Diana says Keith now began aggressively courting her, showering her with gifts, flowers, notes of affection. It was all she said, a bit much. He kept pushing for more.

“And I kept telling him, "You need to back off.”

You need to slow down because I'm just not there." Diana says she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about Keith that was holding her back. Maybe it was the fact that he still seemed unusually bound to a woman he called his ex-wife.

From the very beginning, Diana says Keith told her that he was divorced. Very first conversation. I'm a divorce guy. Right. By the time she was sitting across from Detective Carter in that interview room,

Diana says she and Keith had never been intimate,

but they were dating. And Keith was talking long-term.

He said, "I don't want to scare you, but I want you to know that I'm looking for properties here in Marsville to buy. So for us to be together." For the detective, Diana's story

put a whole new spin on the investigation.

“Keith Griffith now seemed like a man with a very big secret.”

Or thinking like a homicide detective was she, the one with a secret. You could spend it in other ways, and maybe she's driving events here. Maybe she wants to get rid of the wife.

That's great. We were open for that being an idea or a possibility. In fact, the detective had let her tell her story without ever explaining the reason for his visit. Now he laid out his cards.

Was he not the worst? No.

He says first of all, he's not divorced.

According to him, he's been married to his high school sweetheart for 36 years. And I just broke down because I... I couldn't believe it. But of course, there was more. We were conducting an investigation.

And this investigation involves what we believe to be a house of his wife. I was in shock.

“Like, oh my gosh, I couldn't believe what he just said.”

I had no idea. So you believe she had been played by this guy? I believe this year. So detective Carter Wonder, if Keith Griffith had manipulated and lied to this woman,

had Keith lied to him too. Maybe it was more about what Keith hadn't said. Re-wined to that woman when the detective had dropped what should have been devastating news on Keith. The investigation showed that the foul play is involved. Did he ask you the questions what happened?

What do you tell him here? She was killed? No. I mean, you'd expect that, right? Julie was shot by an intruder.

What's going on? There was no questions to that. But if Keith Griffith was somehow involved in his wife's murder, how on earth had he pulled it off? After all, he was hundreds of miles away at that hotel the night of the crime.

Unless, of course, he wasn't. Coming up. A security video surprise. You scroll into the tape. Go through, go through, and then would your bingo moment come up.

And then a twist rocks the entire Griffith family. We were all frantic. We had no idea how it could have happened. When date line continues. Six days after the cold-blooded murder of Julie Griffith,

family and friends gathered at her church to say goodbye. Between the visitation and the memorial service, Sun Zack was overwhelmed. Just showed, like when I'm an amazing woman, that my mom was, to have that many people come out.

Just to say that, you know, they just wanted to get their condolences. To close friends, Craig and Temple Bradley, Julie's husband Keith was more emotional that day than they'd ever seen him. Tears, sadness.

I'd never seen him cry, you know, in my life.

But even as the Griffith family more, Zack and his brother were feeling uneasy about the investigation, which seemed to be focused exclusively on their father. I was angry. I felt that the detectives, the sheriff's apartment,

were on a manhunt, and they were after my dad. Because the husband's always do it. Yep, the husband's always do it. And they just seemed like they just zeroed in on him, and we're going out at 110 miles an hour.

And we're not respectful to my brother and I about any of the developments or anything going on. But Detective Matt Carter had an ongoing investigation, and he felt there was ample reason to pursue their dad. After his interview with Diana,

he'd driven to the hotel that was Keith Saliby. There he uncovered a bomb show. Remember Keith saying to the detective he'd been at the hotel the entire night, talking out just twice to get a drink and a snack? Well, unhappily for Keith Saliby,

when the detective hit play on the hotel security video, it told a vastly different story. Keith is seem leaving as he'd claimed around 11 p.m. But I think within 15 to 30 minutes,

he's going to be returning, but that never happened.

You scroll through the tape, go through, go through, and then would your bingo moment come up. He finally arrived back at the hotel, six hours and 34 minutes after he left initially. Gone for more than six and a half hours,

was that enough time for Keith to drive all the way back

“to his house in Kentucky, commit the crime, and return?”

So what did you and your partner find when you put a clock to it?

it would have allowed approximately 20 minutes,

at least to have committed the crime. Is that enough time on the ground for him

“to do this lethal act, because his wife and torture house?”

I believe it was a 15-20 minute window, yes. Keith Griffith was arrested and charged with arson and murder. He could answer the allegations, sir. He could face the death penalty. He pleaded, not guilty. We were all frantic.

We had no idea what was happening, how it could have happened. Because at that point, we knew that there was no way that he had anything to do with it. So this is nightmare country. Yes.

But again, we thought it would all be explained. You know, they would do their job, they would take him,

and the truth would come out.

I was 100% convinced that he was innocent, and that they were taking the wrong person in. Meanwhile, the person who actually did it was getting away. Family and friends were, for sure, distressed to learn that Keith had another woman on the road.

But the revelation wasn't enough to shake their support for him. It was a shock, but was something that we accepted as a mistake, but that did not mean that he killed Julie. There's no way he did it. Not to do.

He's wide. Yeah. Kids, my other. There's no way Keith did it. But when Keith Griffith went to trial in February 2015.

All right.

Prosecutor Raymond McGee laid out a formidable, circumstantial case.

On January 17, 2014, Keith Griffith decided that he could kill his wife. A cornerstone of the case was that hotel security video. Not only did it show Keith gone, for enough time to commit the crime the Prosecutor said, it also caught him in a lie.

“Remember, in his interview, Keith told police he hadn't swapped clothes that night.”

They know that any point changed clothes. But I'll look at the security footage showed he had. He left wearing one set of clothes. He was one of his work shirts. He came back dressed in all black.

The Prosecutor also showed security video captured from a residence near the Griffith home. It caught a glimpse of an SUV pulling into the subdivision shortly before the fire. It was a few seconds long, but it sure looked like Keith Griffith's car. And another circumstantial bit, who else but Keith the Prosecutor said, "Could have gotten by the Griffith's aggressive, great-dane Cleo.

Certainly not an unknown intruder." The dog and Keith were very close, but a burglar couldn't have come in. A family member could have. As for the Y question, how could Keith, a man who by all accounts loved his wife, actually do it?

Well, the Prosecutor turned to two age-old motives. Almost every case involving a husband and a wife. It's lust and greed. One or the other, in this one had both. The lust part of the equation, he said, was DNA.

Raise your hand. She took the stand and told the jury that not only was Keith house hunting for them, he was also making plans to bring her down to Paduka for a concert and introduce her to his family. I'd love for you to come for the weekend, stay for the weekend.

We'll go to the concert, and I would really like for you to meet my dad. As for the greed part, that was life insurance money. Two policies on Julie's life worth $250,000. One of them, the prosecutor said, had taken effect just eight days before Julie died. Keith Griffith got to the point in his life.

He just wanted to start something new. And he didn't want to give Julie Griffith what she would have needed in a divorce and been entitled to. Keith's daughter, Law Alley Griffith, listened to the entirety of the prosecution's case. All she heard were theories.

They spun a story, and they told the story how they wanted it to go. And they had facts that supported their story, but did not prove it.

“And that's what Keith's defense attorney Mark Bryant hammered home for the jury.”

What's no evidence, mate? They didn't have DNA. They didn't have any kind of forensics. They didn't have a confession. They had nothing.

They had circumstantial evidence. In their haste to arrest Keith, the defense argued the police had gotten it wildly wrong. Yes, he conceded Keith wasn't the husband of the year. But he said, DNA's story that Keith was pursuing her for a long-term commitment was nonsense.

Rather, what he wanted was a port in every storm. As for the life insurance, $250,000 was far from a financial windfall he said. Even the Bradley's knew that the reason Keith and Julie bought that new policy was because of a friend's recent tragedy. She had been nagging them about getting the making sure they had plenty of life insurance.

And he argued the footage of the SUV pulling into the subdivision was far too blurry to idea as Keith's forward expedition. Besides, if a guy is going to go to this much trouble to kill his wife, why would he drive

But the big question still remained.

If Keith hadn't driven back to Paduka to kill Julie, where had he gone the night of the murder? The only person who could answer that was Keith himself. He was very adamant about taking the stand. He wanted to talk to the jury. He did.

What would he say? And would the jury be leaving? It was rolled the dice time. Coming up, Keith's eyebrow-raising alibi. I was embarrassed in a shame to what I was doing that my wife died.

And then, what Keith revealed to us?

“That's what I've told everybody that when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it.”

Why even a jury couldn't end this case?

Keith Griffith was about to take the stand and explain the most damning piece of evidence against him. The hotel security footage that put him off the grid for more than six and a half hours, the night his wife, Julie, was murdered. But if he wasn't perpetrating the crime during that time, then, where was he? Tell us your name, please sir. Keith Wing Griffith.

Keith's explanation came with an embarrassing secret. His lawyer argued that ever since becoming a traveling salesman, Keith had struggled with an addiction to sex. Keith, until you got out on the road, several years ago, did you have this kind of a sexual addiction? No, sir. And the night Julie was murdered.

He said he spent those hours out prowling for women. After he left the hotel, he changed out of work-close into his man outlooking duds. Then, like, people to put my job with my carousing. With your carousing.

“He says he went to a massage parlour, bar and a couple of strip gloves.”

But try as he might. He never found a hookup. I was trying to fix somebody up, wasn't anybody vulnerable or interested or what or how you won't put it. After last call, he said he went down to the river to watch the boats before returning to the hotel to catch some shut-eye. As for why he lied to the police.

I was embarrassed in a shame to what I was doing that night, my wife died. Did you carry your wife? No, sir. Did you kill those dogs? No, I love those dogs.

When the case went to the jury, Keith's friend Craig Bradley didn't know which way the jury would fall. I didn't know if he'd get acquitted, but I didn't think he'd get convicted. I really felt like it'd be a hung jury. Turns out, he was right. After six hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked.

I'm going to declare a mistrial this time. Keith would sit in jail for another year as he awaited a second trial. A long time for his family to process the story he told on the stand. He left to go to a bar to go cruising or something. And then he goes and sits on the riverfront.

He has never done that before in his entire life.

So when he stepped down, you thought? Yeah, father did this thing? Yeah. And I definitely wasn't seeing it out loud, and I wasn't ready to accept it.

“But I definitely was moving in the direction of the only thing that makes sense at this point is that he committed the crime.”

After months of wrestling with the thoughts, Zack decided it was time to send his dad a letter. I'd put in the letter, my opinion, was that you've did it. You know, you took away the last chance that I had it rebuilding a relationship with my mom. You know, you're no longer allowed to contact me, and I don't want you to ask about me to anyone. Well, dear dad, you are dead to me.

Exactly. His brother's wife, Ali, had started to feel that way about Keith too. It seemed like he was fabricating everything that came out of his mouth. But there was a split in the family. Despite doubts of his own, her husband, Aaron, the one closest to his father, was still a supporter.

Whatever issues my mom and dad had, I'd just cannot believe that my dad would take my kids away from their nano. Then a few months before Keith's retrial detective Carter's phone rang, there was news from the jail, and inmate had some information about Keith, and it was as eerie as it was chilling, the detective in the bullseye. Keith had come forward to him wanting to have me killed. To put a head on you, put a head on me, orchestrating your death.

Yes, he drawn a map of what he believed to be my residence, suggested the caliber of weapon to use to kill me. The informant specifically asked him, "What if my family was present?" And his response was the one word that that was tragedy. Well, that does make the hair on your next end up. It does.

That wouldn't look good to a jury. The development brought Aaron to a tipping point. Were you no longer wavering at this point, Aaron?

Yeah, my father killed my mother. Yeah. Now, Aaron to wrote his dad a letter. If he was guilty, it's time.

“It's time to man up and do what you should it unto years ago.”

Keith's defense attorneys went to the prosecutor to hammer out a plea deal. They agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and force soliciting the hit. Moments later, Keith was standing in a Paduka courtroom, speaking the words.

His family and friends never in a million years thought they'd hear him say.

Yes, he murdered Julie. There's no excuse for what I did. And I can't take it back. And she was my best friend. And then I don't know what happened to me.

But I did it. There's nothing I can do about it. Temple Bradley who works near the courthouse was there. My heart is breaking. That the person that I have put whole heartily put in my dressing room for two years. Has lied to my face.

You know, I just can't believe we've been deceived in that way. Because we were there for an old time. For Keith's family and friends, there are so many questions. But one seems to tower above all the others. I want to know why, and I want to know how you go from a loving husband and father and grandfather

to driving all that way, killing your wife, and then covering it up. And then lying to your family for so long, knowing that we had everybody doubting us. And we still defended him. Disgusting. He's a monster. All I can tell you is that had a lot of bad thoughts, wrong thoughts, mistakes.

We sat down with Keith hoping for answers. But as many times as we asked him why this all happened. Why'd you do it? I really can't tell you. I mean, I don't know. I mean, just a bad decision.

We never did get a satisfying response.

So this isn't some kind of delayed midlife crisis here. No, were you trying to be with Diana or someone like her to have a final happy chapter in your life? No. New house. Do you see how perplexing it is to hear this?

I know. It's absolutely confounding.

“That's what I've told everybody that when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it.”

I have a hard time believing that I did what I did. And one thing he didn't do, how about a divorce? Never crossed my mind. Keith now says the remorse began the moment he pulled out of his driveway. Trying to get out of the subdivision, crying before I ever get out.

We're gritin' what I done. I probably drove 100 miles an hour all the way back, hoping to get caught. As for the future, Keith says he is prepared to die in prison. I don't have anything to live for, except maybe forgiveness from who, from my boys. And that's why you're talking badly.

Yes. Well, it's between you and them, but I'll tell you might take on it as you get some distance to make up. I know I do. I've got a lot to make up.

Of the countless things Keith stole from his family, resilience was not among them. Aaron and Zack said that once they knew what happened to their mother, they could finally mourn her passing and focus on keeping her spirit alive for those two little grand daughters who were the center for a universe.

“My oldest daughter, where we remember, like I said, she talks about her almost every day.”

We have pictures of her up in her room. As my youngest gets older, we'll tell her the NASCAR nanostory about when she was born

and just never let her memory die.

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us. I'm Craig Melve. Cheers.

Cheers. I've always been a glass half volt kind of guy. And now, I'm talking to some people who look at the world that we two. It's really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, challenges, their stories, their funny and my candy.

So I hope you'll join me each week and who knows. You might just come away with your own glass asshole. Search glass half volt with Craig Melve from today. on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.